May 23, 1993 | Robert Scheer, Robert Scheer is a contributing editor to The Times

According to the Washington-based media, a Hollywood-Clinton connection threatens to tear apart the very fabric of this Republic. The response has been a barroom assault on the entertainment industry of unprecedented meanness. Film executives, actors and writers who have met with the President have been dismissed as "nitwits" in leading publications. The critics insist that anyone who works in the L.A.

It was a challenge that Barbra Streisand wasn't sure she could handle. Though she made her directorial debut with 1983's "Yentl" -- the musical drama about a young Jewish woman who disguises herself as a man -- she was initially wary of taking on filmmaker duties for the cinematic adaptation of Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story.

November 11, 1994 | LIBBY SLATE, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES; Libby Slate writes regularly for The Times

Barbra Streisand may not ever tour again, but you can still catch her act Sun day at the Academy Plaza Theatre. That's when illusionist Jim Bailey will be strutting his Streisand stuff--fingernails, blond wig and all--performing "People," "The Way We Were" and other numbers from the singing star's shows. His two hourlong concerts, with opening act Kaye Ballard, are part of the "Show of the Month," a musical series designed for audiences older than 50.

Barbra Streisand is expected to join the entertainment industry's mega-deal bandwagon this week by signing a film and recording contract with Sony Corp. worth a potential $60 million. The agreement--which could be announced as early as Tuesday--reportedly rivals recent multimedia pacts struck by Michael Jackson and Madonna. The signing is the latest in a string of mega-buck pacts triggered in March, 1991 by Janet Jackson's estimated $40-million deal with Virgin Records.

In an evening filled with music, poignancy and a bit of history, Barbra Streisand received the 29th annual American Film Institute Life Achievement Award Thursday. The Brooklyn-born actress and singer became the first woman director to ever achieve this honor. "This is an historic night for AFI," said Jean Picker Firstenberg, AFI director and CEO. "Not only is Streisand the first woman to be honored as a director, she is more." Pointing to Streisand, she said: "You are a national treasure."

In her faux leopard coat and matching pumps, the mannequin looks enough like Barbra Streisand to stop foot traffic on Castro Street. She's sizing herself up in a mirror, feigning a pose from the opening scene of "Funny Girl," in which Fanny Brice pronounces, "Hello Gorgeous!!" It's a tip-off, folks, to what lies beyond this storefront window: a kitschy, 6-month-old museum and store dedicated to Streisand's movies, music and mystique. Hello Gorgeous!!

"You never know," said Mary Jonas, clutching a 1964 Playbill for the Philadelphia tryout of what became the Broadway hit "Funny Girl." The program had a smiling 21-year-old Barbra Streisand on the cover. Jonas was 21 then too. "I could get an autograph. She's one mercurial lady, so it might happen. I was there. I am here. So is she."

Barbra Streisand has been a nose revolutionary, a nose nationalist and liberator, a preacher of proboscis pride, a nostro-terrorist, a prophet who saw the pert, snub, freckled, upturned, tidy, tiny, cute all-American cheerleader popularity of the ideal nose personified by Doris Day back in the 1950s, and she bloodied it. "I kept my nose to spite my face," she sings in "I'm Still Here," with new lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

The hyper-paced medical drama "ER" nearly made Emmy history at the 47th annual Nighttime Emmy Awards on Sunday, but its triumph was tempered at the last minute by a series about foul-mouthed yet concerned police detectives, "NYPD Blue." NBC's "ER" scored eight Emmys in its freshman season, including those for best supporting actress, best direction and best writing. The drama's wins tied it with "Hill Street Blues" for most Emmys ever won by a series in a single season.